The Supreme Court on Thursday granted bail to a convict named Farook, sentenced to life in the Godhara carnage case, considering the fact that he has undergone 17 years sentence and that his role was stone-pelting at the train.
A bench comprising Chief Justice of India DY Chandrachud and Justice PS Narasimha passed the order in an interlocutory application filed by him in the appeal pending in the supreme court. The bench led by CJI DY Chandrachud passed the order.
However, the Solicitor General of India, Tushar Mehta, appearing for the State of Gujarat, told the bench that the case was not ‘mere stone-pelting by the convicts, as their acts prevented people from escaping the burning train coach.
The crime which took place on February 27, 2002, resulted in the killing of 58 persons in a fire inside the S-6 coach of Sabarmati Express. This incident triggered communal riots in Gujarat. In 2017, the Gujarat High Court commuted the death sentence of 11 to life-term and upheld the life sentence to another 20. The appeals filed by convicts in the supreme court have been pending since 2018.
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